Bathory

Bathory was a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Vällingby in 1983 by Thomas Forsberg, who recorded and performed under the name Quorthon. Named after Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory, the band is credited as a pioneer of both black metal and Viking metal — two of the most significant developments in extreme music of the late twentieth century.

The early Bathory albums — Bathory (1984), The Return (1985), and Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987) — alongside Venom and Hellhammer, define the first wave of black metal: raw, lo-fi, satanic, and deliberately primitive.